(RTTNews) - First-time claims for unemployment benefits showed an unexpected decrease in the week ended March 17th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday, with claims falling to their lowest level in four years.

The report showed that initial jobless claims fell to 348,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 353,000. The drop surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge up to 352,000 from the 351,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since coming in at 347,000 in the week ended March 8, 2008.

Peter Boockvar, managing director at Miller Tabak, said, "Bottom line, the lowest amount of initial claim filers since March 2008 is encouraging, as we've a certain improvement in the labor market."

"Seasonally speaking though, the mild winter impacted seasonal hiring's and firings and thus throughout April and May we'll see how much of the slowdown in job layoffs and improvement in job hiring's was a pull forward," he added.

The Labor Department also said its four-week moving average, which eliminates some of the week-to-week volatility, edged down to 355,000 from the previous week's revised average of 356,250.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also dipped to 3.352 million in the week ended March 10th from the preceding week's revised level of 3.361 million.

With the drop, continuing claims fell for the second consecutive week, falling to their lowest level since August of 2008.

I remain surprised at the unexpected frequency of economic reports that use these two words. Are the journalists economic illiterates who are simply clueless so that anything would be unexpected? Are they in the habit of using those words, and didn't notice that this was superficially good news? Is the media dying so rapidly that they can no longer attract and keep competent consultants?

3
posted on 03/22/2012 8:39:38 AM PDT
by Pollster1
(Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)

Well, FIRST time jobless claims have to drop at some point. By now, nearly everyone that can be laid off has been laid off! They will have to start calling that SECOND time jobless claims to be accurate.

5
posted on 03/22/2012 8:49:58 AM PDT
by RetiredArmy
(God is watching America. He is judging America. He does not like what He is seeing.)

Please note that they are no longer saying revised “higher” or revised “lower,” only REVISED! Because they know that that people know for a fact they ALWAYS revise UP!

Do they not realize that the American public is more awake than ever? They can no longer BS and expect people to buy their crap!

I think my favorite part is that EVERYONE is dancing because it is as low as 2008. If I remember right, that was when the economy was TANKING! So, they are not “correcting” the problem, at best, they have stabilized the failure! They are trying to introduce 6-7% unemployment as the new “normal.” Where as, in the past, and as soon as a Republican is back in office, it will be 4.9% or less is “normal.”

18
posted on 03/22/2012 9:54:40 AM PDT
by ExTxMarine
(PRAYER: It's the only HOPE for real CHANGE in America!)

So there's been a ~ 1.5% improvement in initial jobless claims figures when economists were projecting about a ¼ % worsening? And we're supposed to get all excited over this (particularly given the mild winter)?!

As Derrick Coleman of the NJ Nets once famously said, "whoop-de-d@mn-do"!

Don’t count on everybody that can be laid off already having been laid off. It was my turn this month after surviving this nightmare for 3.5 years. I had some interest from other companies as well, which suddenly dried UP as they discovered their earnings estimates were not as good as they had hoped they would be,

“Dont count on everybody that can be laid off already having been laid off.”

I’m sorry to hear that it was your turn this month; it is frightening what is happening across the country. Companies are adjusting their salaries down to the “new normal”, and from I’ve seen of people around me employees with similar experience/skills are simply being swapped between companies for lower pay. Anyone I know who lost a job that was fortunate enough to find similar work is earning less by doing it, and in some cases they are hired as temps while being worked as regular full-time employees. Best of luck in your job search.

I hope your right, but there is something that I am very concerned about, more people now want the entitlement society, of “Gimme gimme gimme” they want everything they can get for free without working for it..those are Obama’s people, those are the ones that will show up and vote for him because they want “obama money” and whatever they can get their hands on for free..those are the ones that give me the most worry

I understand that the grasshoppers will always want the ants’ food, but now the ants have little left and what the grasshoppers are still skimming isn’t filling them (inflated dollars). Without massive increases in entitlement payments, those people can’t gas their cars or take as much home from the supermarket.

People on fixed incomes (social security, pension, welfare payments, etc.) are the hardest hit because the inflation is being deliberately understated to keep those costs down; “Obama’s people”, like many of us, are worse off than 3 years ago. The ones I know are a demoralized lot, publicly praising him while privately wondering what the heck is wrong.

“Just as soon as the dust settles in 2013 the power that be will be cutting Unemployment Recipients by the Millions.”

I don’t know; many people have already run out (hence the rise in food stamps), but our government knows that they can’t have too many people with nothing to lose. Desperate people do desperate things (Obama was elected because his opponent was portrayed as four more years of Bush, under whose watch the real meltdown started), and an increasing number of people without work who have lost their homes truly have nothing left to lose.

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